"Furey,.Maggie.-.Artifacts.of.Power.1.-.Aurian" - читать интересную книгу автора (Furey Maggie)

Aurian
Maggie Furey
Chapter 1
THE LADY OF THE LAKE
Ho, little girl!"
Aurian jumped, the blue fireball dropping from her hands to the
dry leaves of the forest floor. She scuffed hastily at the
smouldering leaves with her foot, the extinguishing spell
forgotten in her panic. Her mother had forbidden her to come out
here on her own, and it was too late to hide. Aurian turned to
run, but the strangeness of the intruder in the glade stopped her
in her tracks.
She had never seen a man before. He was tall and broad, clad all
in brown leather beneath his heavy cloak, and bearing a huge sword
at his side. The brown hair on his face looked distinctly odd,
reminding her, together with his brown eyes, of the animals that
were her friends. He stepped forward, his hand outstretched, and
Aurian backed hastily away from the looming figure, another
fireball beginning to form between her fingers. The man looked at
her thoughtfully then sat down on the ground, his hands clasped
round his knees. Now that he was nearer her own level, he looked
far less threatening, and Aurian began to feel a little more
confident. These were her mother's lands, after all. "Who are
you?" she demanded.
"I'm ForralЧswordsman and wanderer, at your service, little lady."
He inclined his head gravely in the nearest thing to a bow that he
could manage from his sitting position.
"Yes, but who are you?" Aurian insisted, still keeping a safe
distance between them. "What do you want? You're not supposed to
be here, you know. The animals were supposed to keep you out."

Forral smiled, "They didn't bother me. I don't hurt animalsЧthey
don't hurt me. It's a good way to live."
Aurian, despite her mother's warnings, found herself warming to
the man. It was a good way to live, and she liked his smile. It
seemed only fair to warn him what her mother would do to him if
she found him wandering around her lands. "LookЧ" she began, but
he was already speaking.
"Can you by any chance direct me to the Lady of the Lake?"
"Who?"
Forral waved his hands in a vague gesture. "You knowЧ the Mage.
The Lady Eilin. If I'm not mistaken, you must be young Aurian, her
daughter. You're the image of Geraint."
Aurian's mouth fell open. "You knew my father?"
Forral's face was shadowed with sadness. "Indeed I did," he said
softly. "Your father and mother both. Geraint gave me my start in
life. I was an orphan, only about your age, when he found me. He
got me into the swordsman's school at the Garrison in Nexis, and
was a friend to me in all the years that followed." He sighed. "I
was away soldiering in foreign parts, across the sea, when your